By Camas Frank ~
Public information meetings are being held by City of SLO Community Development staff around the implementation of a residential rental inspection ordinance approved by the City Council back in May 2015.
Teresa Purrington, the new code enforcement supervisor tasked with building the program, and explaining it to landlords, has had her work cut out. Some attendees at a January meeting held at the Ludwick Community Center came away with some diverse understandings of what it was she wanted to explain.
Passed by the Council in a 3-2 vote, with Councilmen Dan Carpenter and Dan Rivoire dissenting. The stated aim of the ordinance is to address blighted neighborhoods and unsafe living conditions, mainly in student occupied rentals. To that end, Purrington said, staff has drawn up plans to prioritize properties with prior safety violations. However, tenant behavior could impact the inspection prioritization if there is a history of nuisance complaints at the property, but it is not the intent of the program, she said. There has been a long history of substandard add-on units only coming to light after complaints or most recently, electrical fires, she said.
What some property owners came away from the last meeting thinking however was that they could lose their self certification status for inspections based on tenant behavior and not on building safety grounds. They also object to the increased cost and being asked to force tenants to sign paperwork, which waives legal rights when faced City agents coming into their living quarters.
The program breaks down to a monthly fee of approximately $10 per property, Purrington said, although she acknowledged that the request for a tenant signature might be uncomfortable, if inspectors are denied entry they can go to court for a permit. Refusal to allow entry could on its own be ground for a permitted inspection, she added.
While the three City Councilmembers who voted for the ordinance last year felt pretty comfortable with the Fourth Amendment implications of the searches under the Constitution, given that the program is modeled after functioning programs in other cities, Councilman Dan Carpenter has thrown his support behind a group urging the Council to repeal the ordinance.
Citing possible Fourth Amendment issues and costs of the new bureaucracy to enforce, Change.org petition asking the Council to repeal their ordinance has gathered 282 signatures. Carpenter included the remark with his digital signature that: “I urge you to contact the 3 who supported it (Marx, Ashbaugh, & Christianson) and convey your disappointment with this overreach of authority.”
When community development director Michael Codron talked to the SLO City News about the program at the end of January 300 property owners had registered for the inspections. At the time he was most concerned that landlords understand the details of an amnesty program for unpermitted property improvements. As long as inspections don’t turn up anything that’s not up to code, the owners have until July 1 to get permits without penalty.
Since the program has taken longer than expected to implement, Purrington added, staff plans on going back to the Council to ask for an extension on the amnesty period.
Two meetings are being held on Feb. 11 and Feb 24 to further explain the program details to residents but seating is limited. Tickets can be obtained at: SLOcity.org/rentalhousing.
